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How hard is it to bulk on a low-carb diet? Would I be better off taking in more carbs to meet my caloric surplus?

You can, but it's not as easy.

Google Mauro DiPasquale the metabolic diet, should get you started.

Also, take a look at www.marksdailyapple.com

Most low-carb bulking diets, of which DiPasquale's is the best, involve some sort of carb cycling. You need some carbs, preferably root vegetables, in order to gain but they should be cycled.

I just add more carbs. High carb for me is a lot lower than it is for most people. Usually you want more on workout days, but you do need a little extra on the other days too. You need sugar after your workout too. You have to replace your glycogen quickly. Chocolate milk with whey added is what I use. I use 4% milk plus 2 to 3 servings of chocolate syrup. It depends on how big you are. I usually have a cup of oatmeal with sugar free syrup to flavor it, with breakfast. Workout days I usually have another carby meal, but I still eat low carb part of the day.

4% milk, sounds good. I wish we had that in Canada.

Also your genetics will be a factor in this, as well as your age. Some stats would help.

If you have a larger build, you should be able to get by with less carbs than most people.

Alright, some stats:
age: 19
height: 5'3"
weight: 125 lbs
build: pretty ectomorphic

From what I've calculated, my BMR is 1514 calories; on a lifting day (of overall moderate intensity) I'll need around 2400 calories. A light activity day will require around 2100 calories. I've significantly upped the protein intake in my diet, and am now looking to build mass.

Personally, I'd say, enjoy your carbs while you still can. But don't go eating potato chips and soda's.

I eat mostly low carb but with a gallon of milk a day. lol I havent really gained any weight though.

Gantz,

It's not hard to bulk on a low carb diet.

You can increase calories on a low carb diet by taking in more fat. Fat is calorie dense. A table spoon of olive oil, coconut oil, fish oil or any kind of fat you can think of has 123 calories.

I mix whip cream into my protein drinks. It gives in a nice taste and increases the calories. You can easily add 300 plus calories to your protein drink with whipped cream.

You can add butter to you low carb vegetables. Put butter on your broccoli, green beans, etc.

Have a salad with ranch dressing, Itilian dressing, olive oil, etc.

Other foods with calories are cheeze, nuts...you get the idea.

Kenny Croxdale

some good advice there from kenny. Only thing I'll add to is get used to adding olive oil to everything.

And I mean everything!

Kenny is bang on. Before anyone complains about the extra saturated fats in the cream, butter, etc, read Dr. Eades book on the "Six Week Cure". He actually presribes this as a way to reduce viceral fat. So you get an advantage of more muscle, a smaller waist and better health. Be prepared for your doctor to complain about your high LDLs. Saturated fats will reduce the numbers but increase the size of the LDL particles which is actually a healthy thing, but is contrary to published guidelines most doctors use.

My favorite bulking food: SARDINES

Yeah. It's just a bit easier, and generally a lot cheaper, on a higher-carb diet. Especially if you can't always bring your own food or have to eat out. But that doesn't make a low-carb bulk hard per se. Just not as easy.

But Kenny's advice is spot-on. Up your fat intake. Start adding nuts to your meals, olive oil to your shakes (and on any food it tastes good with), fry in virgin coconut oil or butter, put cheese on anything (if you can tolerate dairy), etc. Snack on nuts - lots of kcals and not terribly filling. Chuck some protein powder into water and drink that after your meal instead of plain water. Buy out the nut butter aisle, sticking to the no-sugar-added kind.

In my experience it's worth ramping it up rather than just adding 1000kcals a day of olive oil or whatever. A sudden addition can be just as stomach-churning as you can imagine, and olive oil burps during workouts are awful. But it's certainly doable.

I prefer my style of bulking:

High Fat
High Protein
High Carbs

I definitely gain weight.. whether it's good weight is always debatable, haha.

Same, I think if you're going to bulk, go all out and enjoy eating anything you want. It's far easier and cheaper to bulk with carbs, after leaning out in the summer I was determined to bulk low carb but it's just too expensive being a student. I've put a lot of fat on, but also have a made a lot of progress on lifts, the best I have this year. When summer approaches and I may be in situations where I have my top of and wanna look buff, I'll be lean again by preparing in advance.

Well, the original question was how to do it on a low carb-ish diet, and Stu and Kenny have ait right, being some type of CKD (cyclical Ketogenic Diet) with carb refeeds, but that being said, Nevage and Nightfall have it right as to don't worry about the macro's so much as long as you get adequate protein, just get it down your face. Kenny and I talked about this on another forum a few years back, and he called it the PIP diet, being Pizza, Ice Cream and Pepsi.
Tim

I down a jack daniels shot glass of olive oil twice a day for calories. My wife almost hurls when I do it, i'm quite used to it now.